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Tim Mahoney

On March 1, the AACTE Diversified Teaching Workforce Institute convened more than 150 teacher educators, aspiring teachers, school leaders, and deans from across the nation to address one of the most pressing issues in educator preparation today: increasing the racial/ethnic diversity of the teacher pipeline.

The event was organized by leaders of the Diversified Teaching Workforce (DTW) Topical Action Group (TAG), with assistance from AACTE’s Department of Member Engagement and Support. Members of the DTW TAG were joined at this inaugural institute by participants from the AACTE Holmes Program, the Black & Hispanic/Latino Male Teachers Initiative Networked Improvement Community, and dozens of others from the broader education community. (See the PDF program for the schedule of sessions, panelists, and other information.)

The Diversified Teaching Workforce (DTW) Institute will convene a group of national leaders at colleges and universities across the United States to spotlight and explore innovative efforts for addressing racial/ethnic teacher diversity across five key areas: recruitment and retention, teacher preparation, mentorship, induction and professional development, and advocacy. Recognizing the need to create spaces within professional networks to discuss and unpack the challenges and possibilities for increasing teacher diversity, the institute offers presentations on current research, opportunities to plan in working groups, and panel sessions focused on best practices from teacher preparation and teacher diversity pipeline leaders.

Topical action groups (TAGs) are groups formed within AACTE to provide a forum for individuals with common interests to network, collaborate, conduct research, and develop policy with the support of AACTE, which provides operational funds, publicity, meeting space at the Annual Meeting, and support that comes from affiliation with the Association. For more information, visit http://aacte.org/professional-development-and-events/tags.

In 2014, a group of teacher educators focused on teacher diversity convened to form the AACTE Diversified Teacher Workforce (DTW) TAG, which, although relatively new, has already begun a number of ambitious initiatives. DTW had its first formal meetings at the 2015 AACTE Annual Meeting and developed a mission statement.